Noir
by Ao Yoake
Summary: In which Hiccup is on the death's precipice... or is he? (shounen-ai/yaoi, anthro!Toothless, human!Toothless, anthro!Hiccup, etc, etc... You've been warned) Story is partially AU.
1. Prologue

Pain shot up Hiccup's arm and down his entire spine, and back again. Alas, Hiccup was resigned to his fate. Perhaps, much like cats, dragons ate their companions when they died...

_Oh... that's right... I'm dying..._

If he could have mustered the energy, he'd probably have laughed at that thought. It didn't take a genius to notice the three diagonal open gashes engraved into his chest. It was nasty. The skin on either side of each gash was curling outward, and the moist flesh inside was a mix of bright reds, yellows, and all in between, while blood seeped out and made it look a bit better than it actually was.

He hadn't even seen what attacked him. One minute, he was checking out the strange rustling sound from a bush to his left, and the next thing he knew, the wind was knocked out of him and he was on his back in the middle of the forest trail. Probably had a concussion to top off everything else. Not that it mattered. He wouldn't be alive long enough to feel the effects.

Hiccup winced at the burning sensation in his arm, then there was a second stab of pain as he saw that Toothless was releasing his bite. That release didn't last long, because Toothless then maneuvered around Hiccup's motionless body and bit his other arm. He couldn't help but to cry out this time. He just wished that Toothless would at least have the decency to wait until he was already dead to eat him.

"Toothless, what are you doing, buddy?"

A long, high-pitched whine was the response he was given. The large black dragon licked at the maw shaped wound he'd created in what may have been an apology. While Hiccup saw it as such, a random onlooker such as, say, his dad, would have assumed the dragon was getting a better taste of his flesh.

"Do me a favor, buddy?" Hiccup requested, and the dragon seemed to watch him with a patient expectancy in those radioactive lime colored eyes. Hiccup took in a raspy, choked breath before coughing out a frothy substance which suspiciously resembled blood. It was bubbling up through his trachea. Maybe he wouldn't have a chance to die of blood loss, though. Maybe he would die from lack of oxygen first. He wasn't one to promote self-diagnosis, but if he wasn't mistaken, he had a punctured lung.

"Can you... track down that... thing... that did this to me...?" he asked, his voice barely audible to even himself. Speaking in even the quietest of tones was a true effort in itself. He could have sworn that Toothless nodded in response, but then again, it could have been a hallucination from the blood loss.

Then, Toothless was gone. Hiccup would have breathed sigh in relief, but by that point, he couldn't really breathe even the smallest intakes of air at all, let alone sigh. At least Toothless would be busy, so Hiccup could pass peacefully at last. Well, as peacefully as one could when one was in utter agony.

_Come to think of it, should my entire body feel like it's on fire? It's not unusual to feel burning sensations from wounds, but this is ridiculous. I'm literally burning all over._

Then his body was covered in sweats, and though he was burning up, he was also freezing. In fact, he didn't know which one he was anymore.

And all he could do was scream.

And scream.

And scream.

Because he'd never felt so much pain in his entire puny lifespan. Never before had he imagine the end of his life this way. Never before had he thought that death would be so agonizingly slow and torturous. Never had he imagined that he'd spend his dying moments thinking...

_Why can't I die already?_

* * *

**Yet another plot bunny for ya guys~ yeah, if this seems dramatic, it's because I wrote this while listening to the Nero album by Two Steps from Hell... Sorry 'bout that. ^^;**

**Well, this is an idea which I intend to elaborate on much more in the next chapter, but initially this is just another one of those generic 'Hiccup is dying and gets turned into a dragon/dragon hybrid by Toothless' stories.**


	2. Du Sollst Nicht Lieben

**"Thou Shalt Not Love," is the name of this chapter... no, it doesn't have a particular meaning.**

**So, a thank you to DragonDude23 for the review. :)**

**To the anonymous reviewer, I find it ironic that you hide behind the title of 'Guest' and call my story rubbish. Suit yourself.**

**Without further ado, on with the chapter. I'm hoping to work out some kinks and give readers an idea of what's going on in the coming few chapters. I know the prologue was beyond confusing, though it was admittedly intended to be such.**

* * *

Big pine green eyes stared up at a wooden ceiling. It had taken Hiccup about half an hour to realize why it was strange that he was looking up at a wooden ceiling, and that what he should be seeing was an open sky with a few tree limbs to block the view. It took him even longer still than that to realize that he passed out at some point out in the forest, and that he was now safe inside his own bedroom, back within the save confines of Berk.

Even when all the facts finally set in, Hiccup didn't make a scene. Not because he was still in too much pain to make a scene, but because he was naturally calm and quite dim-witted like that. That wasn't to say he was stupid, but that he simply didn't react in the proper way to the right things.

So he sat there. Alone. Bored.

He huffed in exasperation, some of his bangs floating up with the exhale then falling back into place. Of course, he then realized he was actually able to huff without it feeling like the most arduous of tasks.

_I can... breathe...?_

Hiccup pat his chest, trying to feel for the wound he'd obtained no less than what he assumed was a few hours earlier. There wasn't any texture to indicate that he still had a wound, and not only that, but he didn't feel pain from the contact.

He pulled down the blankets piled on top of him. Instead of big, ugly wounds, his eyes were greeted with somewhat less ugly scars in their place. Hiccup frowned.

_That's strange._

His brow furrowed in concentration and confusion. He pulled the covers back over his chest, not wishing to contemplate the matter any further.

"Hiccup? Are ye awake?"

He was brought to attention by the gruff, yet concerned voice of his father. Stoick the Vast was the name he donned. The large man shouldered his way through the doorway which barely allowed his passage, and creaked and strained as he did.

The man's beady yellowish auburn eyes widened visibly when he caught sight of Hiccup, and he rushed over to his bedside, "Hiccup! I've been worried sick about ye for three days!"

Though he was surprised that it hadn't been the assumed few hours since he'd passed out, Hiccup didn't act as if it shocked him to be informed this. He continued to stare at his boring ceiling, "Is that so..." it wasn't really a question.

"Yes," Stoick answered nonetheless, "what happened to ye?"

"Long story," Hiccup chuckled nervously.

"Simplify."

Hiccup sighed. _Of course. _

"I'm not really sure myself. I was attacked by something. It moved too fast for me to see."

He conveniently forgot to mention the part where his own dragon had bitten him... twice...

Stoick, of course, could see right through this, but let sleeping dogs lie for the sake of keeping the peace between him and his son. He'd nearly lost Hiccup to the valkyries or Freyja, or whatever otherworldly entity intended to embrace his only son's death. He didn't care to lose Hiccup because of his own insistence (as hard as that was to believe of Stoick, who was known for both his strength and bullheadedness).

However, Stoick was wounded that Hiccup would want to hide the fact that his dragon had bitten him from his own father. It served to show to the hulk of a viking just how far apart they'd drifted. There was a void between them that he feared he may never be able to fill, and all due to his own selfishness and fantasies. He'd wanted Hiccup to be a tough viking, and what had that gotten him? That was a rhetorical question, mind you.

Stoick set a single hand on his son's small, bony shoulder, "Son, I know you're hiding something from me," he could feel Hiccup tense at this, "but I won't force you to tell me anything. I've learned my lesson, and I will respect your wishes. I want you to know that no matter what happens, I will always love you. Nothing will ever change my love for you, my only son."

Hiccup felt himself nearly tearing up, and he probably would have cried on the spot if it weren't for the fact that he was suspicious that his father had ulterior motives. He always did.

Changing the subject, Hiccup asked, "Where's Toothless?"

"Toothless?" Stoick asked, with a strange look on his face, and for a moment Hiccup feared that Stoick was going to feign ignorance. The burly man lifted a hand to thoughtfully finger at his red beard, "Well, he was rather feisty when we found ye, so we had him subdued and locked up with the others."

"You locked up Toothless?!" Hiccup cried, distraught.

Stoick held up his hands to stop Hiccup from getting out of the bed, "Whoa, whoa, m' boy! It's only temporary until he calms down and ye get better!"

"No! I'm better now!" Hiccup shouted. "Let me see Toothless. I need to see him!"

_I need to see if he's still acting_ strangely. This thought, for obvious reasons, was left unspoken. He stared up at his father pleadingly.

"No."

"Yes," Hiccup pleaded, "_please_. I'm begging you, Dad."

"I can't let you see him, Hiccup," Stoick denied him firmly, and there was a look of pain in his eyes at this.

He felt himself frowning, gnawing at his cheek in frustration, before finally he demanded, "Why not?"

"I just can't, Hiccup. I can't let you see him."

And then his father left the room. Now, Hiccup wasn't stupid. He wasn't just going to sit still and take his dad's words for an answer. He was going to find his own answers. He slipped on his prosthetic foot and walked to his bedroom door, but when he tried the knob, to his dismay it was locked. How did he...? How did his dad...?

He disregarded these thoughts. Trying to figure out how his dad locked his bedroom door from the outside wasn't going to get the door open. He'd simply have to find another way. With this thought in mind, he turned to walk over to his only bedroom window. Upon approaching it, he caught sight of a strange silvery shine through his window. He looked closer and realized with a shock that what he was seeing was bars outside his window.

_Why would Dad lock me inside my own bedroom?!_

* * *

**And that's a wrap! For now. Sorry if my updates (on all my fics) have been a bit slow. I've been sort of distracted by some real world matters (aka: my younger siblings are visiting from another state and I'm stuck with baby sitting duty).**

**Nonetheless, I'll try my best to update. I think the next fic I'm updating will be one of the Durarara! ones, so here's to hoping I can keep the inspiration for a bit longer.**


	3. Du Sollst Nicht Liegen

**Thou Shalt Not Lie.**

**I'm trying to decide just how much I wish to give away in this chapter.**

* * *

He sighed. So his father wanted to keep him locked inside his bedroom like some princess in a tower? He wasn't just going to sit and wait for a prince to come along and save him then. Surveying the room, he tried to think of a way to escape from his bedroom. Assuming that his father had locked up Toothless, based on the way that Stoic was acting, his dragon would not be coming to a timely rescue. That meant waiting around for rescue, as he'd already deduced, would be out of the question.

He wasn't strong enough to bend the bars. Or break down the door, for that matter. Still, he decided that he'd have to make the attempt. Hiccup, was by nature curious, and tended to try things even when odds were nearly impossible.

First, he tried the typical banging on the wooden door. This brought absolutely results, although he didn't expect any. He backed up and charged forward, ramming his shoulder into the wood this time. The impact was painful, but in hindsight he thought that it had been a bad idea. A shock of pain sung through his shoulder, and yet a large crack formed in the center of the door.

_I cracked it...! Have I always been strong enough to do that?!_

He couldn't help the small smirk of triumph that turn up the corner of his lips. It didn't last long, though, for on the other side of the door he heard a banging.

"Keep it down in there! Ye'd better be going to bed!"

Hiccup groaned. Of course his father would quash his hopes. He looked around his room again. Maybe there was a more quiet way to escape... a way that didn't involve dislocating his shoulder and risking the immediate wrath of his gargantuan father. He rubbed his hand through the mop he called hair, but quickly dropped his hand at the feeling of a thick layer of oil and sweat coating it. Hiccup made an expression of disgust and rubbed his palm on his pants. He could really go for a bath.

The brunette pushover of a viking realized he was getting sidetracked again. He tried to focus on the situation at hand. He then remembered that he kept his workshop desk in the room, and that he had tools for small projects.

_How in Odin's name did I forget about a workshop smack dab in the middle of my room?!_

He shook his mental ranting away and rushed over to the desk. To his dismay, he found that his father had removed all his tools from the room. All that was left on the desk were his sketches and notes, as well as his writing utensil. Well. _That_ certainly would do him little next to no good.

For a moment, he felt a strange itch in his throat, as if he needed to cough. The feeling went away quicker than it came, though, and so he ignored it. He tucked a lock of hair that had fallen in his eyes back behind his ear. Hiccup reviewed his sketches and notes, not really registering what he was even looking at, while he contemplated his next course of action.

Alas, nothing came to him. He wandered over to his bed, sat down, and gazed out the window. Sitting around would obviously get him nowhere, but trying to beat down the door hadn't seemed to be getting him much further.

Hiccup shook his head. There had to be something. Something he didn't think of, a factor he hadn't taken into consideration, a chance he hadn't taken yet... but what?

He frowned. His chest was bothering him. More specifically, something inside his chest. He'd have thought he had heartburn, but of course he was a viking and had no idea what heartburn was. So that thought was irrelevant. He lightly pounding a fist at the spot, but it didn't seem to do much more than cause the sensation to travel upward. Suddenly, his throat was burning, as if there was bile working its way up. As if he might vomit.

Hiccup jumped off the bed and ran to the window, expecting himself it to spew chunks. Instead, he spewed something else.

There was a flash of bright purple. Almost white. Suddenly, the bars were melting. A giant hole was left in their wake. The metal cooled quickly, and Hiccup noted that the hole was large enough for him to crawl through. Instead of stopping to question just what the hell just ensued, he took the chance of escape he'd been granted. He'd consider what happened and the consequences of what he was doing later.

_I have to find Toothless and figure out what's going on!_

He had to sneak into the stables. Stoic had put the twins in charge of guarding the entrance for some odd reason. Why he'd chosen them of all people, he'd never know, but it wasn't important. He created a diversion by letting the farm animals nearby loose. Some of the younger dragons that were out and about couldn't resist chasing them, and the twins were forced to leave their post to deal with them.

Hiccup took this opportunity to sneak inside the stables and find Toothless. He found the catlike black dragon at the very back of the stables, chained down (as he'd suspected all along), and still clad in his prosthetic fin and saddle. Upon seeing Hiccup, the dragon made quick work of the chains all on his own and was free in seconds. If he'd been thinking more rationally, he'd wonder why the dragon had allowed himself to be chained up for so long in the first place. It wasn't a rational day for Hiccup it seemed. (When was it ever?)

"Toothless? Buddy?" the teen questioned, taking a cautious step forward. The dragon's response was to make a sound akin to purring as he tilted his head to the side in curiosity.

Next thing the viking knew, he was on the ground with a dragon three times his size licking his face. At least it was the old Toothless he knew. He nearly believed that the events which had occurred the night before were all fabricated from his own imagination. Had his father not locked both Toothless and him up- in separate rooms, no less- he'd be inclined to believe it had only been his imagination. He wished it had been. He paused in his musings, staring at Toothless in amazement.

"Did you just say something?" he asked, dumbfounded. The dragon tilted his head again, and purred. Hiccup could have sworn that he heard his name within the purr, but figured he was imagining things. Tons of weird things had been happening to throw off his norm, after all. The stress must have been getting to him.

"We need to get out of here, bud," he spoke to his dragon like a normal human being, as he'd always believed that to some extent his dragon could understand him, "the villagers are going out of their minds!"

Toothless seemed to nod in agreement. Hiccup took this as his cue to jump onto the dragon's back, and Toothless took off running at a ruthless pace. Somehow, he managed not to tumble off Toothless's back from the sheer power of Toothless's speed. That didn't make the cold wind slapping his face feel any better.

* * *

It had probably been a few hours since Hiccup and Toothless had fled Berk. Toothless hadn't taken flight even once, because Hiccup wasn't able to focus enough to operate his fin. He and Hiccup both knew that risking flight with Hiccup's state of mind would most likely be suicide.

After a while, Hiccup began to babble mindlessly to Toothless for no other reason but to distract himself. He didn't speak about anything in particular, but the dragon still seemed to focus on him, as if he genuinely cared what Hiccup was saying. Toothless came to a complete stop when Hiccup started on the subject of his dad locking him inside his own bedroom. Particularly when he mentioned the incident of melting the bars on his window.

The dragon chirruped, the sound ending in a high note that indicated curiosity. Hiccup didn't get much time to think about it, as Toothless reared back and effectively threw him off. Nor did he get much time to wonder why Toothless was acting strangely again, because the dragon was then tearing at his shirt.

"N-No! Bad dragon! Wh... what are you...?"

He stopped when he noticed where the dragon was sniffing. Toothless had torn away his shirt sleeve to reveal the spot he'd bitten him the day before. It had changed somehow. It was no longer a bite wound. The spot was raw, and it felt rough to the touch, like sandpaper.

He frowned, "What is this...?"

He knew he'd get no response, and obviously he didn't. His frown deepened as he sat up, gesturing wildly toward his shoulder.

"What is this?!"

The dragon sat, staring at him. Not even a purr, chirrup, or growl was uttered. Toothless simply sat before him, with those hauntingly green eyes, fluorescent in the setting sun. A moment of silence, and then the dragon was up and walking again. Hiccup had no choice but to stand up and chase after his dragon.

"And where do you think _you're_ going?!"

The dragon made a growl that sounded suspiciously similar to an indignant humph. Hiccup huffed at him. He could already foresee that yelling at his dragon would get him nowhere, but he'd stubbornly put forth the effort to try. It was really only to make himself feel better. Toothless probably knew that, too. It seemed the dragon was quite irritated at him, even though said dragon was the reason he was even in this mess. At least, Hiccup thought so.

It only took a few more awkward minutes of silence for Hiccup to finally sigh and ever so quietly say, "Fine. I'm sorry. Happy now?"

Toothless batted an ear in his direction, but gave no more indication he was even paying attention. A possible '_fuck you'_ in dragon speak, Hiccup figured.

"I get it. You're still angry. You have a right to be. You did that for a reason yesterday, right?"

A glowing green eye slid toward his direction. '_Okay, you've got my attention, so hurry up before you lose it_,' he seemed to reply.

"I was dying back there. Wasn't I?"

The dragon slightly turned his face toward Hiccup, and his eyes narrowed in a deadpan sort of expression (or what resembled one- hard to tell with dragons). '_How dense can you get?'_

"Right, right. Kinda obvious, I got you," Hiccup chuckled, looking away nervously as he did so.

He felt a nudge under his hand, heard a purr. He looked down at Toothless, who was looking up at him reassuringly. '_I'm here for you.'_

He smiled, "Thanks, bud."

Toothless's eyes shined, _'No problem.'_

At this particular instance, Hiccup realized that he hadn't just been making up dialogue for Toothless in his head. He'd actually heard a voice.

"Wait, are you actually talking to-?!"

Just then, he felt a sharp pain on his left cheek. A rush of air disturbed the hair around his ear, sending a shiver down his spine. Hiccup lifted a hand to his cheek, pulling it away to see a few drops of blood pooled in the center of his palm. He glanced behind himself to see the culprit of the wound- an arrow, lodged deep into the trunk of a tree.

This time, he heard the arrow before it came. On impulse, he tilted his head to the side, just as a second arrow came whizzing past. If he hadn't moved, it would have hit him right in the eye. Would have been a painful way to go, to say the least. For some peculiar reason, he felt as if his senses had improved in that short span of time between the first and second arrow.

There was a tugging at his pant leg. He looked down at his startled dragon, _'Come on, we have to get out of here!'_

Rather than continuing his earlier train of thought on whether his dragon was truly speaking to him or not, he nodded in reply. The moment his rump touched the saddle, Toothless took flight. There was no hesitation this time. They weren't allowed to have any. Luckily, Hiccup was reigned in by the pain from the attack and actually focused on steering.

They found themselves returning to Berk. Travel time had been less than half the time to get back than it had to leave, thanks to Toothless's unrivaled flight speed. Upon arrival, they found a less than happy welcoming committee. Scratch that, it was a mob.

Toothless made an attempt to stop, but with how fast he'd been flying, it was impossible. Instead of stopping, he found himself and Hiccup spiraling in a nosedive at an alarming speed toward the ground. Hiccup covered his ears with his hands as Toothless let loose a shrill cry of what was most likely terror. Odin knows _he_ was scared.

Hiccup tugged at Toothless's ears with all his might, but to no avail. He wasn't really sure why he'd thought doing that would help anything anyway, but it was probably because of the panic. People always did stupid things when they panicked.

_Oh, right... I'm panicking..._

And he did the only thing that felt logical in a situation such as that. He screamed.


	4. Überleben des Stärkeren

**"Survival of the Fittest."**

**In which the unfit do not survive. Oh, my humor is dreadful. Please feel free to correct me on my titles if they are grammatically inaccurate or otherwise incorrect. I appreciate it, as foreign languages are something of a learning experience for me. I wasn't that good at english to begin with. ^^;**

* * *

One moment, he'd been screaming, and the next thing he registered, he was making impact. He noted dully that the ground felt harder than usual, but then again, anything would probably feel like a solid rock when one was falling at a couple hundred miles an hour... which most likely was not an exaggeration.

Yet, for some idiotic reason, they'd survived the impact. Sure, Hiccup felt horridly disgusting pain singing through every portion of his body, but he was alive. And it was hell. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was wishing that he'd been killed upon impact.

There was a twitching beneath him, so that meant Toothless had survived, as well. Hiccup groaned as groggily lifted his head. His vision, though blurry, was still functioning. He rubbed at the side of his face, hoping that it would help ease his growing headache. The skin felt like sandpaper when he touched it.

At first, he wasn't aware of the crowd that had surrounded him and Toothless. He continued not to notice them until there was a loud gasp of horror from behind him.

"What... what _is_ it?!"

"Black magic..."

"It's turned him into a monster..."

"Kill it with fire!"

A feeling of dread sent Hiccup's heart plummeting to the pit of his stomach as he listened to the distressed shouting and arguing of his fellow villagers. Denial was the first emotion he felt.

_They couldn't be talking about me, could they...? I'm no monster._

"But that's Stoic's son."

He felt a flutter of hope at the protest.

"It doesn't matter anymore."

Good feeling gone.

"It's for the good of Berk."

"Yeah!"

Hiccup gulped, the dread making a comeback, "Uh oh..."

Before he could even think of an escape route, big and bulky vikings were closing in on him with torches ablaze and pitchforks raised. He'd never imagined he'd be a target of a fearful mob. The denial was finally fading as he came to his senses. There wasn't magically some other person accompanying him. He _was_ the monster they were referring to in such a manner.

No amount of pleading in his eyes would cure that. They were going to kill him, and he wasn't even going to get to ask why. Of course, he hadn't included Toothless in his calculations, and he really hadn't expected Toothless to be able to stand. He'd forgotten how hardy dragons could be. _'You want Hiccup, you'll have to get through me!' _

Alas, get through him they did, because there was only one of Toothless, and nearly thirty of them. The fact that Toothless wasn't making fatal attacks as courtesy to Hiccup's ideals didn't help him at all. Toothless's attempts to block them from Hiccup, no matter how powerful a dragon he was, were easily thwarted.

Hiccup tried to fight back against them, but he should have know from the start that his efforts would be fruitless. He was stubborn. He still made the attempt. He even managed to put up a good fight for a few minutes (a record on his part, if he did say so himself). Punched one viking away, then another. A savage kick to that one's groin would send him packing.

Then, he was being pinned to the ground by none other than Astrid. How... humiliating...

She was staring down at him with an expression of unconstrained fury, huffing loudly to catch her breath. He stared up at her before slowly looking to Toothless. The dragon was being held down by Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Their usually jovial demeanor had been traded out for grim visages that could give Stoic a run for his money.

"A little help would be appreciated, bud," he chuckled nervously, but not really expecting any help. The only purpose saying it had really served was to fill the silence. Toothless stared at him with that deadpan look that he seemed to make so well. _'And what the hell do you expect me to do?' _was what he seemed to say.

"Right. I forgot," he mumbled, looking away. However, upon looking away his eyes fell on Astrid, who was looking down at him with the most peculiar of expressions.

The expression quickly turned sour, "Stoic has requested your presence immediately."

There was no emotion in the speech, even with how much displeasure darkened her eyes. Clearly, she meant business.

* * *

"I'm disappointed in ye, Hiccup."

He hung his head low, one arm being restrained by Astrid while the other was in the vise-like grip of Snotlout. He knew that his bully of a cousin was enjoying this more than he was letting on, and suffice to say that angered Hiccup. He was tense. He felt like a band pulled to tight, about to snap.

"I noticed," he glared up at his father from beneath his bangs.

"What has that dragon done to ye?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"He's turning ye into a monster, Hiccup."

"So?"

"I can't even trust ye to be alone for five minutes. Do ye know how worried I was?!"

_Snap. _"How does locking me in my room and putting bars on my window equate to trusting me?!"

"It was a precaution-"

"Precaution my ass, old man!" he said these things, but he didn't mean them. He didn't know why he was acting this way all of a sudden. His dad was just pissing him off so much. "What kind of father locks up his only son? You're not dad to me."

There was hurt in his father's eyes, his face contorted in undeniable pain from the speech, "Is that really how ye feel...?"

"Yes!"

A mask of indifference fell into place. Wounded and caring Stoick was now gone, "Take my son to his room. He is to be guarded indefinitely. Tell the executioner to make haste."

Astrid and Snotlout began to tug Hiccup out of the room. Hiccup wasn't going to go along willingly, though, and they were forced to drag him on his rump. He struggled against them, making it quite difficult for them to do as they were told.

"E-executioner?" Hiccup cried. "What do you mean? You're going to execute me?!"

Stoic averted his eyes from the pitiful sight, "Of course not. The execution is for the dragon."

* * *

It was maybe a couple hours later that he found himself shackled to the floor of his bedroom, just as his dad had done to Toothless before. At first, they'd tried to simply be civil about his imprisonment and just keep him locked in his room, but he couldn't have any of that, so they'd opted to shackle him instead. He wasn't exactly happy about the modifications to the imprisonment. It wasn't exactly an improvement.

For the better part of the day, he spent his time shouting at the guards outside. The first few hours, Astrid and Snotlout had been on duty guarding him, but they'd later been relieved of the duty so that they could rest. He didn't know the people currently stationed at his bedroom door, and he vaguely mused on whether they were actually villagers of Berk.

He gave up on shouting when his throat got too sore to shout anymore. Hiccup frowned as he stared up at the ceiling. He was really bored. Massively bored. Beyond bored, really.

Being chained down to one's bedroom floor didn't leave much in the way of entertainment. He paused his thought process. Had that been a knock at his door he heard?

"Hiccup? I'm coming in."

He knew that voice. It was Astrid. There were three distinct clicks from what he was certain were the locks on the outside of the door. It opened to reveal the fiery blonde viking in all her hellish glory. She kicked the door shut behind her as she advanced on him.

"Listen," she muttered angrily, "I don't know what's gotten into you, or why you've been acting the way you have. I have half a mind to believe that I don't even know you anymore, and the other half is inclined believe that half, but I owe you. Got it?" she didn't even wait for the nervous nod that Hiccup made. "So I'm going to give you a tidbit of information: the execution was an hour ago."

His mind went blank for a moment. Was he hearing her right?

"They killed Toothless?!"

Astrid laughed at him, idly making practice swings with her favorite axe, "Not exactly."

"I don't think I understand what you mean," he frowned at her, visibly perplexed.

"Well..." she said dramatically, "... they had all the preparations ready and everything, and they were just dragging him out to the block, and wouldn't you know it? The sneaky bugger escaped! Right under their noses. You would've thought that he couldn't break those restraints, but I guess that dragon of yours was stronger than we gave him credit for."

"Wait... so... Toothless escaped...?"

She knocked on his head, the same way one would a door, "Duh! Isn't that what I just said? Pay more attention. You really are dense, you know that?"

"Funny," Hiccup sighed, "Toothless said the same thing."

"Hiccup," Astrid rose a delicate brow, seemingly questioning his sanity, "dragons don't talk."

"Oh," he laughed, "yeah, I guess I forgot about that."

"Hey, there's something I think you ought to see."

Hiccup was confused about what Astrid could possibly have wanted to show him at a time like this. They weren't really on the best of terms, so he found it a bit odd that she was doing him a second favor. Still, he waited patiently as she left the room before returning. When she came back, she was casually holding a shield in one hand. Strangely enough, the shield was polished so well that he could see a reflection in it from all the way on the other side of the room. She held it up in front of him, so that he could see himself.

"Look," she ordered.

At first, he wasn't sure what she wanted him to look at, but as he stared at his reflection he realized that a lot had changed about him. There was a rash around the edges of his face, and they strongly resembled the rash he'd found on his shoulder from where Toothless bit him. He also noticed strange black spots, or freckles, or something of the sort. He wasn't really sure. The black freckles were abundant across his face, though. As a passing though, he wondered whether he might be catching some sort of dragon flu. Surely, dragons also got sick.

He was unable to lift his hands, as they were shackled down, so he just stared at the reflection. He didn't want to believe it was him, but when he frowned, so did the ghoulish visage of his reflection. It was definitely him.

"What's happening to me?"

Astrid rolled her eyes and tossed the shield behind her, "That's what all of us have been wondering this entire time. In any case, the only one that could possibly have the answers is probably halfway across the sea by now."

"You mean Toothless."

She nodded. There wasn't much to say anymore. They remained quiet for a while. Eventually, Astrid turned to pick up the shield she'd callously thrown earlier.

"I must take my leave now. This will be the last you see of me. I'm going overseas with a visiting clan- they need female warriors like me there. Bye."

It was a bitter farewell. In the entire exchange, from the moment she'd entered the room to the moment she was leaving, she never made an attempt at mentioning their previously blossoming relationship. Then again, neither had he. He supposed it was safe to assume they were 'over'.

* * *

Three days of imprisonment hadn't seen Hiccup in a happier mood than the first. He was growing more and more depressed, and he was swiftly running out of things to entertain himself. The first two days, he spent his time wondering if and hoping that Toothless was okay. He'd mused about every possibility, logical or not. He figured if Toothless really did escape, he was alive, but if he was, then why hadn't he come back for Hiccup?

The next two days, though, were spent listening to the muffled goings on outside his bedroom. Both outside his home and simply outside his bedroom door. Most of the things he heard weren't very intriguing, but they were better to listen to than the maddening nothingness which was his practically empty room. It wasn't until the most recent murmurings and rumors that his curiosity had been peaked.

He caught wind of it when one of the guards came inside with his tray of food. Feeding time was nearly the only time they unshackled him, because nobody really wanted to feed him themselves. Apparently, they figured he couldn't put up a good enough fight to bother with restraining constantly.

So he listened closely when he heard the guard talking in a hushed tone which he figured he wasn't supposed to have been able to hear. The guard with the tray was speaking to one of the two guards stationed outside the door (one of which was yet another viking he'd never been acquainted with, and the other was Ruffnut). Somehow, despite their efforts to hide the conversation from Hiccup, his ears were sharp enough to pick it up. He chalked it up as having something to do with all the other odd things that was going on with his body.

_Maybe I'm evolving into a higher species. Ha! That would be such a joke._

The guard leaned toward Ruffnut, gesturing for the tall viking to lean closer, and asked, "Have you heard?"

"About what?" the mischievous female viking asked. Evidently, she was just as uninformed about whatever incident had occurred as Hiccup was. Hiccup's ears perked as he watched them intently. They hadn't noticed he could hear them yet.

"You haven't heard?" the guard with the tray was incredulous as he said this, then said, "Word around town is that some of the farm's livestock have gone AWOL. Not a trace of the missing animals, but the noobie farmhand swears up and down he found a chicken foot in the water trough."

"What? That's disgusting. Any theories on what's going on?"

"Ha! I don't think it would just be a rumor going around if anyone knew what was causing the disappearances. The chief and the elders are trying to keep it on the down-low, but between you and me, I bet that runaway's coming back for food."

"What runaway?"

"Don't play dumb. Of course I mean that dragon they tried to execute a few days ago."

Hiccup's heart soared at the prospect that Toothless had returned. He just hoped his dragon was okay. As he was distracted by his own inner musings, he didn't notice the guard with the tray walking up to him. The guard dropped the tray on his bed, some of the slop they were calling food spilling onto his blanket. He undid the restraints holding his wrists down, but hesitated for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked warily.

"... Odd..." the guard muttered, completely ignoring Hiccup. "It's almost as if they've started melting..."

"What are you on about?" Hiccup asked, becoming quite confused.

"None of your business, runt," the guard said, undoing the restraints, "eat your food before I lose my patience."

Hiccup took his time, shaking out his wrists to work out the kinks and soreness. As he was doing this, he became aware of a flash of a dull red from corner of his eye. He stopped shaking his wrists to examine his hand.

_Is it just me, or is there mud under my fingernails? _

He wasn't sure why something as silly as the sight of mud under his nails would bother him- he was a viking, after all. It was a product of the trade. Then he noticed that there wasn't just mud, but also blood caked under them. That was the flash of red he'd noticed before. He stared, trying to make sense of what he was looking at.

"Well? Are you going to eat, or are you just going to sit there staring at you fingers like a dainty little woman?" the guard demanded, his face reddening in anger.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup murmured, settling his hands in his lap, "it seems I lost my appetite."

With a shock, Hiccup realized that it was true. It wasn't just that he wasn't hungry, but he almost felt... satiated...

_Weird. I must be losing my mind. Hallucinations upon_ hallucinations.

The guard harrumphed, "Wasting my time," he grumbled under his breath. He was hasty in putting Hiccup's restraints back on him, and none to gentle about it, either. Hiccup didn't care all that much by this point.

* * *

The following couple of days, Hiccup spent listening for a continuation of the rumors about the disappearing livestock. Depressingly enough, he didn't hear much on it after the initial mentioning. He wished that he could get some sort of sign that Toothless was still alive. Whether it was solid evidence or not. Just something more specific that livestock disappearing. Maybe a sighting of a flash of black scales in the evening, or a flash of bright light from the legendary Night Fury's fire, or even a sighting of glowing green eyes in the night.

Anything to renew the hope within him would have been nice. He begrudgingly admitted to himself that he was yearning for his dragon. What else was he to do, though? His father had all but disowned him, and the villagers, his friends included, were dead-set that Hiccup had been transformed into some sort of monster (despite the fact that he really only had some sort of red rash and black freckles, which was by no means enough evidence to base his being a monster on). The love of his life had up and abandoned him to go to a new village. Toothless really was all he had left. At least Toothless hadn't (willingly) abandoned him.

_Oh, Toothless... where are you,_ buddy...?

* * *

Hiccup groaned as he was awakened by shouting nearby. The first thing he was aware of after coming to was that he wasn't being restrained by chains anymore, and the second was that he wasn't even in his bedroom anymore. The smell of dirt and blood stung at his nostrils, and his hands felt disgustingly moist. He soon discovered that he was sitting atop a mass of feathers, chunks of flesh, and from the corner of his eye, could have sworn he caught sight of a chicken foot and a couple horns and hooves.

_Oh, Thor... Toothless isn't the one killing the livestock... _he realized, already feeling sick to his stomach. _I am!_

"Over here! This is where I heard the crashes coming from!"

Hiccup's ears picked up the crunches of feet on soil as the voices in the distance grew nearer. He wiped his hands off on his pants, if only to make his conscience feel a bit better. Without giving the approaching, no doubt bulky, vikings a second thought, he jumped to his feet and took off running. He didn't spare the gory scene a second glance.

It wasn't long before he'd reached the edge of Berk and he could hear the ruckus of a mob stirring up again. From the edges of his vision, he could just barely make out the dim light from the torches far behind him. He didn't think about it for long.

And then he noticed something. Yes, he was at the edge of Berk... but he'd gone the wrong way! He was nearing the pier, and the mob behind him assured that their was no room for a new direction. They were gaining on him fast. As he was taking all this in, he mused to himself about how amazing it was that he still hadn't even broken a sweat or begun to breathe harshly. His own sudden stamina baffled him, and almost scared him.

When he got to the end of the dock, he didn't hesitate. He leaped right into the water, despite the chilling climate that Berk constantly hosted (needless to say the water was ice cold). While he was busying himself swimming out to sea- never mind what he intended to do once he'd managed that- the mob had stopped at the end of the dock.

Only once he was sure that he was a safe distance from them did he stop and turn around, but when he did, he wished he hadn't. There, at the head of the mob was his dad.

Funny thing the heat of the moment did to a person. To the end, he didn't know who made the order to shoot him where he was, but what he did know was pain of a the metal that pierced straight through his rib-cage to the other side. It made a hole in the center of his heart, no doubt.

Contrary to popular belief, one does not instantly die with a shot to the heart. Death by pierce to the heart can be an agonizingly slow process, as Hiccup was quickly discovering. As he was ever so slowly bleeding out, it was getting harder and harder for him to tread water.

In his dying moments, he could have sworn he heard Toothless, far, far above him- shrieking at the sight of his passing.

_Toothless... I'm sorry I couldn't stay alive a little longer for you... buddy..._

* * *

**You have no idea how very tempted I was to cut the story off at the part where Stoic is talking about executing Toothless. Alas, I said that I would finish with the prelude of this story in this chapter, and I fully intend to!**

**I'm sorry if this is a bit jumbled, especially toward the end. My mother's friend dropped in, and she's drunk. Suffice to say she gave me quite the headache.**

**This marks the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. (Yes, I do enjoy speaking in riddles. Thanks for noticing.)**

**From this point forward, I plan to write in Toothless's perspective. Just a heads up for you guys. :D**

**Oh, and I shouldn't be giving away all my secrets, but hey, I guess I've already insinuated~ Hiccup's not dead. Well, he is, but he's not. It's complicated. ^^;**

**Let me know if there's something I can fix, some grammar I've royally screwed up, or a particularly OOC moment you believe needs fixing.**


	5. Wiedergeburt

**"Rebirth."**

**Why do I keep picking German names for my chapters...? Hell if I know. German's cool. :P**

* * *

One thousand years. That's how long it had been. At least, that's what he'd told himself. He'd kind of lost count at nine hundred and eighty-two, but it was somewhere around there. He didn't know why even bothered keeping track of the time at all anymore. He'd been suffering the terrible years of his life for so long, clinging to this idiotic hope that he'd see him again.

_Hiccup_.

That was the name of his companion, his closest friend, and dare he say it, other half. When their awkward companionship had first begun, he'd gone along with it more as a joke than anything else, but he'd soon after discovered how valiant, how pure Hiccup really was. He was the first creature to show him kindness, let alone the fact that he was a human.

Yes. Hiccup had always been dense like that. He'd help even the scariest of raging beasts, even if said beast was trying to rip him to shreds. It was a wonder that Hiccup had been able to vanquish the Queen. Come to think of it, it had also been a wonder that Hiccup had requested that he kill the little pest that had nearly cost him his life.

_Did he ask me to kill it? Or was I just making that part up?_

It didn't matter. Not really. Not anymore.

He'd stopped questioning his past the moment he'd realized Hiccup was dead. His life had drawn a large blank after that. Literally. Probably the first fifty years or so after that day were completely blank. He wasn't even completely sure whether it was fifty years that he'd blacked out. Had the shock from losing Hiccup really been that bad?

"Lazing about, moaning again, are you?"

He jumped in surprise, but turned toward the speaker as he did in hopes she wouldn't catch the movement. The smirk on her face told him she had. He groaned inwardly.

"You're so easy to scare, it isn't even funny anymore," she laughed.

"Shut up, Stormfly," he grumbled, getting a little angry in defense of his masculinity, "what do you want, anyway?"

"Can't I just be concerned about my dear friend's health?" she joked.

"No," he said, not even giving her a twitch of the lips at the joke.

She threw her hands up in the air, "Ugh! I forgot how serious you always are!"

He went back to staring out the window he was currently sitting by. He sighed, "If you only came to make fun of me, you've achieved that. Leave or cut to the chase."

"Fine. I've been talking to you-know-who," she whispered, holding a hand up in front of her mouth to block her voice from nonexistent spies, "and he thinks that it would be in your best interest to enroll in that new high school in Berk."

He had to subdue the urge to roll his eyes at her, "Need I remind you that I have no intentions of intending some human contraption of a nursery for teenagers?"

"Oh, come on," she said, "you never know. It could be fun. It would get you out of the house for something other than food, too."

"No."

"Please?"

"My answer is still no," he ground through his teeth.

"For me?" she begged.

"Since when have I ever done anything for you?"

She held a finger to her chin in a comical display of contemplation before chuckling, "Ahh, good point. Fine. Here's the deal. He's insisting you try the school once. One day, and that's it. You don't like it there and you can go back to your little... brooding... all you want. Deal?"

He slapped a hand over his forehead, then slowly massaged his temples with two fingers. He closed his eyes as he asked, "There's no way you're changing your mind?"

"Not a single one."

He sighed again, "... Fine... _o__ne_ day, and that's it."

* * *

That was how he'd ended up in the front office of Berk high school (an _oh_-so-creative name, he might add). Getting enrolled was easy enough, seeing as _he_ had already arranged for everything before Toothless had even arrived on the scene. Toothless would never understand their leader's fascination with humans, or why he insisted that Toothless remain involved with society when all he wanted to do was curl up and bellyache about the loss of the only human he really cared about.

"Mr... Walram... was it?" asked the voice of the office attendant from behind him.

Realizing he'd been dozing off on his feet for the umpteenth time, he turned to her with what he hoped was a pleasant smile, "Charmed," he murmured, not bothering to complain about the name she addressed him by. It wasn't his name, but he figured that _he_ had chosen the name for him. His eyes narrowed.

_What a troublesome leader..._

"I'm sorry, have I offended you?" the lady asked, taking his displeasure as a sign that she'd done something wrong.

He smiled apologetically, "Ahh... no. I'm sorry. I've had something on my mind all morning, but never you mind. I am Walram. I'm here to pick up my class schedule."

"Are you? Well then, here you are," she picked up a sheet of paper from her desk and handed it to him.

He accepted the sheet, looking it over to see what classes he'd been allotted. Raising a brow, he asked rhetorically but also incredulously, "Ninth grade...?"

"Oh dear," the woman fretted, "you aren't a freshman, aren't you? That's what I was told, so we filled out your schedule accordingly. Were we misinformed?"

"Apparently not," he muttered, already mentally cursing his leader.

"Uhh... what...?" the lady asked, thoroughly confused.

"Nothing, nothing," he laughed it off, "I'm in the ninth grade. I'll take my leave for homeroom now."

"Well, if everything's in order..." she replied, unsure. She was staring at him, as if contemplating something.

He ignored her and left to find room 201. It couldn't be that difficult.

* * *

Of course, whenever he told himself something couldn't be difficult, fate just had to bite him in the ass and make things hard for him. As it turned out, room 201 wasn't even in the building he'd currently been in. He found out that there were two school buildings, in fact. The second was located across a street directly behind the main building, and that was where room 201 was.

_Fancy that..._

He hated to bring himself to asking for directions, but ended up having to do so. Even more embarrassing to admit was the fact that he'd ended up asking for directions a second time once he'd entered the second building. Eventually, though, he was able to find his homeroom.

_Never going to go to school again. Ever._

His homeroom teacher was a burly blonde man who looked strangely familiar to him.

Toothless noticed that as he was looking the slightly taller man over, the man was doing the same. The man fixed him with a look of what was most likely superiority. He was blocking Toothless's entry into the room as he asked gruffly, "Ye the new kid?"

It took him a moment to register the man had asked him a question, so when he realized it, he quickly nodded. The man's eyes narrowed calculatingly.

"Ye..." he said, "... yer aren't one of them druggie kids, are ye, son?"

"Ahh... ahh..." Toothless murmured, put off by the peculiar question and jargon. He shook his head, "No, sir."

"Good," he said, dropping the cold demeanor, "I'm your homeroom teacher, Heinrich. Most of the kids call me Heini, so if that pleases ye, then ye can call me that, too."

Toothless had to hold back a chuckle at the nickname, "I'll keep that in mind, sir."

He jabbed a meaty thumb toward some area in the back of the room, "Ye'll be sittin' next to Ambros, I reckon," he explained, then shouted toward the area he'd indicated, "Ambros, raise yer hand for the new kid, er-" he looked back at Toothless, whispering, "What's your name?"

"Walram," he answered in a robotic voice, remembering the name his leader had indicated for him.

"Walrus," the man said toward the back of the class.

Toothless smacked a hand over his forehead. He couldn't figure out whether this 'Heini' had really misheard him or not. Was he simply that stupid or what?

A boy of what Toothless assumed to be short stature (he couldn't be sure, since the boy was sitting), slowly raised his hand. The kid was the type who was so withdrawn that it drew attention to him. He was puny, had longish brown hair, was pale as a ghost, had splotchy freckles on his face, and the biggest green eyes Toothless had ever seen. He looked like the type that frequently got shoved into lockers by jocks.

It was love at first sight.

* * *

**Yes, yes, Ao Yoake, what are you thinking?! Giving the characters German names?! You're so weird...**

** I've got nothing to say for myself...**

**Anyway, the supposed meanings of the names I've used as of thus far are as follows.**

**Walram: Battleground Raven.**

**Heinrich: Strong Ruler... but Heini is an unflattering term which means 'goofball' or 'moron'...**

**Ambros: Immortal.**

**Well... Ja ne~ ;)**


End file.
